It has been said that journalism has shaped the history of the America. Everyone who has been a part of journalism in the past has had some effect on what this country is today, whether that is good or bad. Journalists in the past have stood up for what is right when the country was treating certain cultures unequally. This also meant that they stood alone and faced the consequences of not agreeing with certain people. This happened during the Watergate scandal, women’s equality, gay and lesbian rights, and also the civil rights movement. Through journalism, writers were able to reach the common people through ink or photographs, hence the title of the book, Mightier Than The Sword. Similar to how society is today, the most effective way to get people to listen or even believe is to have them read it or seen it. That is what journalism has done for this country in the past and why it helped shape what this country is today.

People’s opinions may constantly change because of how news is told in today’s world. There is a lot of false news out there that makes it hard for people to form their own opinion. The advanced platforms that news is told through, as in different social media platforms are a very interesting thing to look at. The different opinions that are received on here are informing, but at the same time they are what make news now a days not reliable. The big platforms like CNN and FOX NEWS are able to get stories out there, but I feel that the way the news is portrayed today is making it more and more difficult to trust the news sources that are supposed to be trusted.

The Baylor University football team has been under heavy investigation over alleged sexual assaults of students at the school by members of the team. Fewer than ten assaults and someone from the outside could dismiss the issue, saying that is what happens on college campuses. Unfortunately that might be expected, however that was not the case at Baylor University. Wade Goodwin, a reporter for NPR (National Public Radio) discussed in further detail what exactly had been going on with this football team, which were through his sources of The Wall Street Journal and lawsuits that were filed. Goodwin states, “more than 31 players have perpetrated more than 50 instances of rape between 2011 and 2014” (2017). That is a lot of situations, especially when it is coming from one specific group of people. The question then is how has this not been in the news more often, or who is disciplining these athletes to stop partaking in these types of sexual activities? Goodwin goes on to explain how the coaches and athletic director have been exposed for trying to cover up this situation to protect their players (2017). This sparked an even bigger outrage from the female victims because it seemed as if the players were the only thing the University cared about. With that being said, the Big 12 Conference to action by sanctioning the program from $7 millions dollars until they felt that Baylor University was taking the right actions in responding to this controversy. Goodwin has been following this story for over a year, which means it is investigative journalism. This story has yet to come to a conclusion; therefore, it is likely that we should hear more from him on Baylor University.

There are a lot of things you can say about the political commentator, Tomi Lahren. A majority of the things people says about her are most likely on the negative side for her strong conservative views and the dismissive way she talks about everyone who does not agree with her. The things Lahren says caught up to her this time when she was on The Political View. It was highlighted on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (at minute 3 and 14 seconds) that while Lahren was on The Political View, she discussed how she was pro choice, which is a rare opinion for a conservative. If anyone knows something about being conservative, it is that they are not pro choice and it stirs up controversy when someone disagrees with them. Because Lahren is a part of a conservative show on The Blaze Network, they were not too fond of her statement, which resulted in her being temporarily suspended. This is Ironic because Tomi Lahren uses the free speech defense when she wants to say other controversial things, but this time the people she works for disagreed and cut off her rights to say exactly what she wanted.

From the beginning of the election I realized that Trump would do and say anything to get people to vote for him. This was also confirmed during his address to congress that was said to be non presidential, but I must give him credit however because he did a good job of feeding people ideas for America even though some policies might not need to be changed. He also fed the world ideas but did not follow up with his remarkable plans, which he claimed he would do. For example, we have the building of the famous wall that he was going to create to keep immigrants from Mexico out of the United States. He said our government was going to pay for the wall until he was elected into office and then claimed that he would ask the Mexican government to pay for the wall. Asking someone to pay for a wall to keep his or her people out of country that is suppose to be about freedom is certainly a presidential move that is looked down upon. Also, he has discussed removing Obamacare many times when he speaks, but the problem is there has yet to be the mention of something taking its place. His speech was the same way his entire attitude has been and that’s telling people what they want to hear. With the Republican side standing and clapping for what he said and the Democratic side at one point physically giving him thumbs down, it was very clear whom he was appealing to.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/opinion-column-no-trump-s-speech-was-not-presidential/article_c8147338-026e-11e7-8dc7-43e6bd3ca387.html

Senator Bernie sanders’s actions are far from congratulatory after he trolls President Trump via Twitter. On Fox News Insider, an article was published about Bernie Sanders mocking the crowd size at President Trump’s inauguration. With all the rallying against President Donald trump, he thought it was a good idea to go to Twitter and encourage his supporters to form their own rallies. The President also claimed that if this were to happen, then it would be one of the biggest rallies ever. This gave Sanders (who also ran for president) a chance to respond with “They did, It wasn’t” and posted the pictures to compare President Trump’s inauguration to the women’s march that took place the day after.

The first immediately noticeable values in NBC Nightly News were impact and prominence. The first news story that was covered seemed to cater towards the citizens of the United States. For example, the first story discussed the topic of Russia giving the U.S. Edward Snowden who exposed the country for not telling the people everything about government surveillance. The problem that was discussed with this is that if Snowden was back here the conversation of surveillance could emerge again causing worry once again among the citizens of the United States. With the election of the new president, Donald Trump, there has been a crackdown on immigration the country, which was a topic on the NBC Nightly News. This pertained to human interest because of the way this story was covered through the news. People were being sent back to Mexico because of the emphasis on immigration, which meant parents and children would be separated. The news source had an interview with a young girl who was in tears because she was scared her parents would be taken away from her. The appeal to a human beings emotional interest is strong which this news source tended to do throughout the show.

After listening to the podcast from the scholars, I realized that it is very important now a days to have news and media literacy. Many sources of information get passed along whether they are correct or not and this can easily have a negative effect on many people. For example, the podcast discussed how Shirley Sherrod was fired from her job after a conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, took her words out of context. This resulted in her being called racist and unfair and she was let go of being the Georgia State director of world development. Something that needs to be outlined is how easy this happened, and how fast people acted to little information they had without even knowing where it came from. Shirley Sherrod explained her thoughts about why she felt like she did, but after that she clarified that her feelings had changed and everyone was able to benefit from it. When the truth came out about how the recording of her voice had been altered, former president, Barack Obama, offered her a job in his administration but she declined. This is a good example of how a lack of media literacy can really affect someone’s career. For someone wanting to go into journalism this podcast brings to life the cautions needed to be a taken not just by a journalist but also by the public.